“The ‘is’ and ‘is not’ of the Green New Deal”

“The ‘is’ and ‘is not’ of the Green New Deal”  April 28, 2019   Dr. Roger Ray

click here to see the video

Taken from legislation proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the creation of a Green New Deal

(i) The select committee shall have authority to develop a detailed national, industrial, economic mobilization plan (hereinafter in this section referred to as the “Plan for a Green New Deal” or the “Plan”) for the transition of the United States economy to become greenhouse gas emissions neutral and to significantly draw down greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and oceans and to promote economic and environmental justice and equality. In furtherance of the foregoing, the Plan shall: (a) be prepared in consultation with experts and leaders from business, labor, state and local governments, tribal nations, academia and broadly representative civil society groups and communities; (b) be driven by the federal government, in collaboration, co-creation and partnership with business, labor, state and local governments, tribal nations, research institutions and civil society groups and communities; (c) be executed in no longer than 10 years from the start of execution of such Plan; (d) provide opportunities for high income work, entrepreneurship and cooperative and public ownership; and (e) additionally, be responsive to, and in accordance with, the goals and guidelines relating to social, economic, racial, regional and gender-based justice and equality set forth in paragraph (6). 

In the history of our planet, there have been five major periods of extinction. These have been caused when the earth suddenly gets too cold or too hot to sustain the species of plant, animal, and marine life that had evolved up to that point in time.

The last major extinction took place 65 million years ago when a large asteroid struck the earth just off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula, sending so much dust into the air that we experienced the equivalent of a nuclear winter, killing off the plant life on which the very large species of dinosaurs depended, spelling their demise but making a hole in the animal life footprint for small mammals to flourish and eventually send up, through evolution, the naked ape which became human civilization. 

The largest of our five previous periods of extinction, the one that happened 250 million years ago, and is called “The Great Dying,” wiped out 95% of plant and animal life and nearly ended all life on our planet. The Great Dying was caused by volcanic activity in the middle of a massive coal reserve in Siberia. The coal was ignited, and it burned for years, filling the atmosphere with carbon greenhouse gases, making the earth hotter and hotter. 

It took millions of years to get all of that carbon out of the atmosphere and sequester it in polar ice caps and in the earth. Now, these are things that could happen again. Tectonic movement, volcanic activity, another giant asteroid, could set another mass extinction in motion and, in spite of what sci fi movies predict, it is anything but certain that we could do anything to stop it.

But we are now on the leading edge of what can only be called the 6^thperiod of mass extinction. Humans have always burned wood, oil, and coal for light or to keep warm, but about 150 years ago, as we began a modern era of industrialization, the amount of carbon we were releasing from the earth and putting back into the atmosphere began to escalate. We are now pumping carbon out of the ground and into the air ten times faster than that burning Siberian coal field did during the “Great Dying.” 

Obviously, the rapidly expanding use of coal produced electricity and the burning of oil to operate our cars and heat our homes has rapidly increased the amount of carbon we are releasing but, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is a huge amount of sequestered methane in the polar ice shelf near Siberia that is about to be released in what scientists call a “pulse” or, literally, a continental burp, that will release as much carbon into the atmosphere as we have in the past 100 years of the industrial age. Apparently, this is going to happen, no matter what corrective measures we take now. Which is to say, no matter how dramatically we choose to address global climate change, it is going to get worse before it gets better. So, say “no” to plastic straws and recycle your empty cans, and get ready for more massive wild fires in the west, rising sea levels, more deadly and destructive hurricanes and tornados, and massive die-offs of thousands of species of plants and animals. And if you ever wanted to see a living coral reef, plan a tip now. 99% of coral reefs will be dead in our life time.

These are not “ifs” or “maybes,” these are scientific facts. The question is whether we will be able to change course in time to curtail the rising sea levels and temperatures, and to save as much of our biodiversity as possible. A crucial thing for us to understand is that we cannot continue in this direction, telling ourselves that the worst affects will come after we are gone. There is, in fact, another generation to be considered. The now 16 year-old climate activist from Sweden, Greta Thunberg is telling the world how things really are:

(show 1:20 video)

The youngest member of congress in American history, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, proposed the “Green New Deal” on her first day in Congress. It is not legislation and it isn’t even a plan. It is a 14-page long resolution that you can read in less than 10 minutes that simply outlines goals and presents only the broadest suggestions of methods. 

Though critics have called her crazy or stupid and have told all manner of lies about the resolution, saying that it will ban all air flight, private automobiles, the production of beef and pork, none of this is in the Green New Deal. These are all just lies.

For much the same reason that I wanted you to hear Greta Thunberg’s voice, I want you to hear the goals of the Green New Deal in the voice of a person who will be affected by it much more than most of us:

Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that— 

(1) it is the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal— 

(A) to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers; 

(B) to create millions of good, high-wage jobs and ensure prosperity and economic security for all people of the United States; 

(C) to invest in the infrastructure and industry of the United States to sustainably meet the challenges of the 21st century; 

00:0
(D) to secure for all people of the United 

States for generations to come— (i) clean air and water; 

(ii) climate and community resiliency; (iii) healthy food;
(iv) access to nature; and
(v) a sustainable environment; and 

(E) to promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of indigenous peoples, com- munities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth (referred to in this resolution as ‘‘frontline and vulnerable communities’’);

We have seen this crisis coming for decades and any suggestion that we take the radical steps necessary to correct our course has been met with objections that economic and standard of living impacts would be too great. And, maybe that is true, so that the only reasonable way to address that very practical concern is to combine the climate saving changes with changes to our economic system so that the two support and feed one another. It is not that it cannot be done. In fact, it must be done, but the two factors of environment and economy must be transformed simultaneously. 

Critics say that the economic changes are socialist and I am getting about as tired of hearing that word used as a scare tactic as I became of hearing all of the reasons why schools couldn’t be desegregated, why homosexuals had to act straight, and why women can’t have equal pay. As Harry Truman said,

Though where he says “20 years” we have to hear “80 years.” Truman said: Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. 

Socialism is what they called Social Security. 

Socialism is what they called farm price supports. 

Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. 

Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. 

Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.”

It should be easy to see that given so many lies, so many misrepresentations, and so much childish name calling, that the right is afraid of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but even more, they are afraid of the powerful logic behind the necessary changes listed in the Green New Deal. But, possibly our more serious challenge, is opposition from those we would like to think of as being allies. 

I want to be careful about criticizing legislators who have decades of success under their belts. Both Senator Feinstein and Speaker Pelosi have a lot of legislative victories to their credit, but both have tried to be dismissive of the Green New Deal by saying that it goes too far. . . that it is too ambitious, that it will never be passed. They want to offer their own versions of a Green Deal that will be scaled back and easier to get passed.

Now, I want you to hear me out on this. You may not agree with me, but I implore you to think about it:  When you propose something big, something really life changing that can both save the planet and restore a middle class in a secure economy, that’s exciting. That’s worth fighting for, worth pounding the pavement, marching, knocking doors, donating, voting for. But the more you trim the proposal, the less enthusiasm you inspire. 

When you get it down to changes that won’t really save the planet and won’t create living wage jobs in a changed economy, then you will get the people to come out and vote who vote for the lesser of two evils but you make it very easy for the idealists to stay home.

Again, I’m not trying to make anyone mad and you have every right to disagree with me, but in 2016, we were told that things like tuition free college and universal health care were just too much, in fact, it was crazy to say that we could have it. The DNC gave us a “safe choice” that was better than the other choice but a choice that would still favor big banks, big pharma, big insurance companies, and corporate interests and the safe choice lost. 

Pelosi and Feinstein want to hold the middle ground and stay safe. I am not alone in feeling like the middle of the road is for yellow stripes and dead armadillos. My position is this:  Aim high because the future of the human race is at stake. Aim high, because aiming low has never, never, never, never worked. 

I am asking you to think beyond identity politics. Yes, I was very glad that in 2008 we got our first black president, but folks, in spite of all of the class, and soaring speeches, you know that Obama was not really a progressive. You know that, right? He was a moderate at best and in many ways, a corporate conservative.

It is time for a woman to be president. I would love to see a woman of color become president. But it would also be great to have an openly gay president. Shoot, I could get excited about having our first Jewish president. 

But I think we have to get past identity politics. 

You know that I am on shaky ground when I try to use a sports illustration but let me try this just once: Think of the issues we see in the Green New Deal that can save our planet and our economy…. Retrofitting all existing buildings and building new buildings to be energy efficient and carbon neutral. . . investing heavily in mass transit, replacing a lot of air travel with train travel, . . . building a power grid that can make renewables replace all oil, gas, and coal power generation . . . instituting new farming techniques that till less and produce less greenhouse gases, and see this collection of issues as a football that we want to get over the goal line. 

If you are the coach, do you care if a white person or a black person carries the ball over the goal line? Do you care if it is a younger person or an older person? Do you really care if the person who can carry the ball over the goal line is a man or a woman, straight or gay? If you are a sane coach, what you want is to get the ball into the end zone, right?

Right now, we have 20-plus players on the bench and that is a lot of players. By and large, I am excited by the field of candidates we have to choose from, and I don’t want to dismiss any of them out of hand because I just want to get the ball over the goal line. Now, some of these players have already said that they don’t want to carry our ball… and they can just head on back to the showers. I like all of them, but I am not married to any of them . . .  is Tulsi Gabbard single? . . . stay focused! It doesn’t matter who carries the ball, we just need to get the ball over the goal line this time. 

They say that in the primaries we fall in love but in the general election we fall in line. I don’t like the sound of it, but, like most of you, most of the time I go to vote, I have to hold my nose and vote for the lesser of two evils but as Ralph Nader has

famously said, “If you always vote for the lesser of two evils, you will always have evil, and you will always have less.”

Men and women, we and our ancestors over the past century have lit the fuse on the 6^thmass extinction of life on this planet. This is no time for half measures. This is no time for compromise or premature surrender. How is my English? Do you understand me? Sometimes I am forced to wonder. 

(Play video)

“They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds”

“They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds”     Easter, April 21, 2019     Dr. Roger Ray

click here to see the video

Violet and the Undercurrents are the composers/performers of the music lyrics used in this sermon:

“We Are Still Here”

They tried to bury us, they try to sweep us under

They try to silence us, they try to scare us with thunder

But after thunder comes the rain and after rain comes the pain

From the pain a seed will grow taller than the sky and stronger than you will know

We are still here, and we are stronger than fear

Yes, we are still here, yes, we are stronger than fear – we’re stronger

They try to teach us our neighbor is our enemy

Here, swallow this pill we have the best remedy

But as you swallow you feel it go down, you feel the room spinning around

Before you know it is too late because you could have chosen not to swallow hate

We are still here, and we are stronger than fear

Yes, we are still here, yes, we are stronger than fear – we’re stronger

Don’t believe everything that you read, don’t believe everything that you read . . . 

The 2005 movie, V is for Vendetta, is set in a dystopian political future in which the government maintains a fascist control of the people through control of the media in a constant barrage of lies and propaganda. I trust my love for this film requires no explanation.

The plot revolves around a character who wears a Guy Fawkes mask who is planning to complete the gunpowder plot of 1605 and succeed in blowing up the Parliament building in order to awaken and unite the people to stand up to their fascist government. 

The subtext of the narrative is that Fawkes can still inspire action, even 400 years after his execution. The main character of V knows that he will die in the process of carrying out his plot, but he is assured that his survival is irrelevant. The point is the idea of the revolution that needs to happen, the idea of freedom, democracy, justice, and as such, it is an idea that cannot be killed… ideas are bulletproof. 

Though entirely fictional, martyrdom in order to immortalize an idea has many historical precedents. Many of us here can remember June of 1963, when the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thích Quang Duc, burned himself to death at a busy intersection in Saigon. His public martyrdom drew attention to the injustice of the Vietnam War and was, at least a part, of the turn of public sentiment from support to protest.

I was in my first year of seminary in the spring of 1980, having only been introduced to liberation theology, when Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated by American trained and funded political assassins in El Salvador. One of his aids came and spoke to us in the Vanderbilt chapel the next month, giving us an eye-witness account of the murder of this liberation theology icon. The progressive priests of Central and South America were systematically captured, tortured, and murdered in the years that followed, all with the blessings of a conservative Vatican that chose to ally itself with brutal dictators out of fear of socialism. 

The current pope, though he was a part of the machinery that silenced liberationists in Argentina, is now trying to assuage the Catholic Church’s collective guilt by having Romero canonized as a saint, which, of course, he would not have wanted, and which entirely misses the point. But, as I have observed before, if all you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail. The Catholic Church is guilty of having cooperated with the arrest, torture, and murder of their own priests and rather than confess their own sins, they want to elevate the first well known martyr to sainthood.

Not at all unlike the way our country has treated the 1964 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. We cannot canonize saints but we can make his birthday a federal holiday and then name all of the most dangerous, crime riddled streets in major cities after him. Now even conservative politicians try to use King’s name and quotes to polish their own reputations while trying to ignore everything he said, but, ideas are bullet proof, and even from his grave, King still speaks to our hearts.

Of course, we are gathered here on Easter, following the traditional observance of the events of the Christian Holy Week in which the world’s most well-knownmartyr is remembered. The oldest biblical accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus were actually recorded by Paul, a zealous believer who never met Jesus in the flesh and who knew very little about the real story, but even as a zealot, Paul never implies that there was an empty tomb or that anyone had seen Jesus after the crucifixion in any way other than as a vision. 

The first canonical gospel, Mark, speaks of an empty tomb but no appearances. The Gospel of Thomas, which probably predates what we have in the New Testament, does not mention a resurrection at all. At the end of the first century, the early church added narratives about a physical resurrection as the message of Jesus was being tamed and transformed from a message of liberation theology, a message of revolution against an evil empire, and into an illusory promise of eternal life after death. The church, conspiring with the political authorities of the day, tried to kill the idea of radical compassionate revolution and to replace it with what Marx accurately described as being the opiate of the people . . . a religious narrative intended to keep the poor and enslaved quiet and cooperative. 

I know that many of my peers in the traditional church think that I am somewhat uniquely radical in my re-presenting of the Jesus narrative but I will leave it to Thomas Jefferson, who, in a 1814 letter to Horatio Spafford, said it better than I ever could:  the priest has been hostile to liberty. he is always in alliance with the  Despot abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. it is easier to acquire wealth and power by this combination than by deserving them: and to effect this they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man, into mystery & jargon unintelligible to all mankind & therefore the safer engine for their purposes. 

 

Some months ago, David Ketchum and I were attending an organizing event for Transgender rights, and we heard Violet and the Undercurrents sing just a couple of songs, but when I heard the line:

They tried to bury us, they try to sweep us under

They try to silence us, they try to scare us with thunder

But after thunder comes the rain and after rain comes the pain

From the pain a seed will grow taller than the sky and stronger than you will know

I turned to David and said, “There is the real meaning of Easter: They tried to bury us but they didn’t know we were seeds.” A government killed Jesus and the church tried to bury his message in magic and superstition, and yet, thousands of years later, some still can hear him calling us to revolution. A government killed Dietrich Bonhoeffer and generations of seminary professors have tried to make his message tediously boring, but his death reminds the church that it is our job to stand up to fascism. 

Our government, working with a despot in El Salvador, killed archbishop Romero, assassins killed Gandhi, JFK, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. but ideas are bullet proof. They tried to sweep them under. Since they were killed, governments have tried to silence their voices, tried to scare us with thunder, they buried them, they just didn’t know that they were seeds. 

We are not the keepers of a dead religion, encased in magical thinking and silly, childish promises of some kind of literal heaven or frightened with the fires of an imaginary hell. We are the one thing that governments and churches fear the most, we have an idea and we have refused to be freighted, to be silenced or even to play dead. Because they know, all that stands between us and the end of fascism, what has kept us from real liberation, is that we were not united and aware. Whether our generation will awaken from its childish indifference or not remains to be seen but this much I know, the world is ripe for a revolution, a reformation, in economics, in government, and in religion. Whether it will happen in my life time or not, I cannot predict, I just know that it should:

“Because We Aren’t Done Yet”

“Eyes on the Sky”

Don’t turn around. Don’t stop now.

There’s something on the horizon.

Don’t close your eyes, don’t look away.

There’s something to keep your eyes on

And don’t ask me how I know, I just know these things sometimes

And don’t ask me how I know, I just know that it’s right

And don’t ask me how I know, Just keep your eyes on the sky

Don’t waste your time on trying to compare yourself to the ocean

Cause if you try then in due time you’ll forget what set this boat in motion

And don’t ask me how I know, I just know these things sometimes

And don’t ask me how I know, I just know that it’s right

And don’t ask me how I know, Just keep your eyes on the sky

Because it is Easter, it is unavoidable that we think of martyrdom and consider how even execution or murder has not ended the influence of some of our most inspiring statesmen and prophets. But, realistically, if Easter is only meaningful for martyrs, then this becomes far too much of a history lesson and idolizing of past heroes and not nearly personal enough.

Sure, an assassin killed Martin Luther King, Jr., but long before James Earl Ray did what he did, the FBI, under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, was bugging his hotel rooms and building a file of mudslinging evidence of affairs, alcohol abuse, and they even were trying to tie him to the Soviet Communist Party. For the most part, governments, the church, corporations, and political parties, don’t so much assassinate their opposition literally, they do it through character assassination, through rumors, insults, inference, and lies. 

I suspect that even most of you felt some satisfaction in the arrest of Julian Assange, because the United States government has spent more than a decade trying to tell you to despise him and have heaped up false or exaggerated allegations to turn the public against him. And, even trying to read between the lines, it does seem like he has been a real jerk in many ways and over years of unjust virtual incarceration in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, he has accepted an unholy alliance with the propaganda arm of Russia. 

But I would beg you to consider two things: First of all, he became an enemy of the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations because he was revealing factual truths about government abuses that our government didn’t want the public to know. First and foremost, beyond all personal foibles and mistakes, you have been asked to hate him because he revealed the truth about illegal spying on American citizens and for war crimes that involved multiple murders of journalists and aid workers. And as painful as it may be to consider, far beyond whatever Assange has done wrong, the real criminals in this play are George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. 

I know that is so different from almost everything else you have ever heard that it is likely difficult to believe so let me just quote the guy that many of us have acknowledged to be the smartest man alive in the world today: Noam Chomsky. 

Well, the Assange arrest is scandalous in several respects. One of them is just the effort of governments—and it’s not just the U.S. government. The British are cooperating. Ecuador, of course, is now cooperating. Sweden, before, had cooperated. The efforts to silence a journalist who was producing materials that people in power didn’t want the rascal multitude to know about—OK?—that’s basically what happened. WikiLeaks was producing things that people ought to know about those in power. People in power don’t like that, so therefore we have to silence it. OK? This is the kind of thing, the kind of scandal, that takes place, unfortunately, over and over.

The second thing I want to say about this is that the government always goes after the low hanging fruit in order to open a door to a new universe of abuses. Assange is not innocent of wrong doing and he has been successfully smeared in the minds of the public to make his arrest acceptable and even laudable to most people. But please don’t kid yourselves, we have an administration that has been busy building a fascist government for two years, in part, through attacks on legitimate journalism of all sorts, including threats to sue or imprison journalists for telling the truth. 

Do you think the Trump administrations whitewashing of the Saudi torture and murder through dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi was out of loyalty to Saudi royalty absent a real and palpable envy? Don’t you see that he would very much like to do the same thing to annoying journalists in the United States? 

You may be hearing it here first, but you will hear about it a great deal more in the future. The arrest of Julian Assange is the precedent for arresting and harassing more and more journalists to silence the criticisms in the media of dishonest and probably treasonous president. I take no pleasure in being right about this, it is just a painful truth. 

In our day, it is legally difficult to crucify, assassinate, or incarcerate our prophets but character assassination is alive and well and reaching a point of artistic perfection.

Dr. Paul Thomlinson and I have just returned from a 10-day road trip to deliver lectures and provide consults in 8 different events in South Carolina and to add to the exhaustion we also took side trips to Asheville, NC, Charleston and Hilton Head, SC and Savannah, GA. But the best part of the trip for me was getting to spend days in conversation between two old friends who have seen one another through all of the successes and failures that life has dished out to us over the past 25 years. 

Paul very articulately came to my defense a dozen years ago when I was being tried in a Kangaroo Court dismissal from my former denomination, and I championed his prospects of becoming the next director of Burrell Mental Health before a 3^rdworld style coups of heart breaking proportions saw him both passed over and then unemployed. In both of our cases, people we had worked with, trusted, and loved, conspired to end our careers through falsehood and manipulation but, as Paul summed it all up, “We ain’t done yet.” 

We both suffered months of unemployment and then dramatic reductions in compensation but, folks, freedom is not free. Our liberation came at a price and there has been a lot of loss of sleep and some real emotional trauma but we are both more effective and have a larger impact than we ever would have had if we had not been kicked to the curb by people who, frankly, didn’t deserve our service.

The metaphor of resurrection is not about a literal empty tomb from which a formerly dead prophet came back to life to live forever in the clouds. The real power of resurrection is possibly expressed better in the prophetic words of Chumbawamba:

 “I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never gonna keep me down”

The hope inherent in the Easter message is not that you will one day be issued a pair of wings and a harp and you will never have to suffer again. The hope inherent in the Easter message is that neither bullets or nails, not divorce, unemployment, bankruptcy, heart break, cancer, old age, or being outnumbered uninformed, uneducated, mouth breaking, knuckle dragging, political fascists, will silence us as long as we refuse to be frightened or turned against one another.

Resurrection is at the heart of a revolution that will change Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, it will change America, England, Europe, it will be the downfall of despots and dictators, ideologues and greedy hoarders of the world’s goods. 

As Pete Buttigieg said so well this week: we are not trying to merely win an election, we are trying to win an era. We are not interested in just impeaching the Clementine Caligula, we want to save the planet from destruction. We don’t want to be forced into the false dichotomy of choosing between rebuilding Notre Dame or giving the yellow vest protestors a living wage, there is no reason not to both value humanity and cherish human accomplishment. We’re not going to be fished into a false battle between traditional democrats and democratic socialists, nor are we going to lower ourselves into blaming immigrants and terrorists for our country’s serious economic disparity. We are either here to change the world or we came to the wrong party. 

As our friends sing very prophetically:

“Cuz, you’ve got the magic it takes and you know it….

Now there’s nothing that’s gonna slow you down.”

"Are We There Yet"

are we there yet

cuz we've been out here for so long

got blood and sweat 

in the fabric of this song

and you could get caught up by right or wrong

but you can bet you're gonna come back strong

chorus

cuz you've got the magic it takes and you know it

you've got the magic it takes

are you listening?

cuz they are talking to you now

what you're sensing is gonna show you how

and it is fitting that you just found out

now there is nothing

that's gonna slow you down

chorus

Progressives or “None”    Rev. Mark Lenneville
click here to see the videoI Am Done Here Palm Sunday, 14 April 2019
MT 21
Over the past several years I have heard some interesting stories about what
brought you to this church and the progressive church movement. The general theme has been that many of you were involved in mainline congregations and denominations, became disenchanted for a variety of reasons, and decided to take a break. Some wore out, some burned out, and others were thrown out. Some swore they would never return to church. For the most part, many of you were “done”with your previous religious experience and just decided you had had enough. For a variety of reasons, you left the institutional church, whether it was Baptist,Methodist, Presbyterian, Assemblies of God, Episcopalian...you were done. Interestingly, you found your way to this community of faith. For that we are grateful. We believe this church and others like it have a different take on what constitutes having a faith-filled life and how to lead a spiritual life.
Many of you reported that you had stayed with your former church or denomination and its theology much longer than was healthy. Perhaps you wantedto “fix” the church or simply wait for the leader to leave, die or both. Perhaps you recognized that you could no longer rationalize the regressive or repressive theology, and at some point, even this rationalization became intolerable. Perhaps you were drawn to the church leader and discovered that he or she had clay feet. Perhaps you were tired of what seemed like constant conflict over minor stuff. Perhaps you found that the church “majored in the minors” spending way too muchtime and energy on minor things like the flowers on the altar, or the temperature in the sanctuary or whether flags should have been in the chancel, or whether thepastor’s lawn was not mowed at the parsonage... rather than doing the majorstuff... you know...feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison or who were sick, standing with the disenfranchised, advocating for peace and justice, lobbying for release of immigrants and kids along the border, providing healthcare for all people. Perhaps you stayed for the fellowship, relationships and traditions. Perhaps guilt was the reason you stayed and the reason you left.
I get it. Lots of reasons to stay... and lots of reasons to go, BUT at some point you concluded, “I am done here” ... and you moved on. But in the back of your mind, if you are like me, you wondered if there is more to this journey in life that can be enhanced by being in a faith community.

You may have been “done” with institutionalized religion and even had entered theranks of the “none”... OR, perhaps....you were simply a Progressive in search of a like-minded community.
Our Wisdom lesson today comes from the Pew Research Center.
<SLIDE ON: Chart>
My bet is that, at some point, you joined the ranks of the people who were“done”... and became an “unaffiliated” person or what has been called a “none.”These are the people who are either atheists, agnostics or folks who do not claim any religious affiliation. This chart shows us that, especially among the younger age groups, nearly 35% of all millennials are now self-described, “nones” orunaffiliated. This is particularly dramatic given that only 9% of the total population, in all age groups, were raised to have no affiliation. You have got toask, “Why?” Why would so many people in all age groups and especially in theyounger age groups now make no claim to a religious affiliation? Why are so many folks, who once were affiliated with a religious group, theology or church, are now“done” and labeled as “nones”?” <SLIDE OFF>
Perhaps the perspective of a former church executive might help. I spent most of my 5 years in executive ministry visiting the 99 Presbyterian Church USA congregations in the upper 2/3s of Arkansas. I preached and taught classes. I lead seminars about church growth and how to attract younger folks to the church and how to build new churches. My core message was always the same.... relevance. The church has to be relevant. It needs to NOT be magical or filled with superstition. It needs to not emphasize a fantastical story or miracles. It needs to be

“real,” logical, pragmatic and honest. It has to meet the needs of real modern people, in the age of science and reason, who have real problems and challenges. It has to provide a voice for those with no voice or vote. It has to address actual societal problems and issues, up close and personally... tangibly, concretely. It has to be a prophetic voice in a world increasingly polarized by class, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and opportunity. My message was a radical message, apparently. It was a tough sell, for sure. For the most part, in the past, churches could rely on belief and not necessarily on practice. Members were told to believe certain dogma and doctrines and if they did, they would be faithful church-goers. Members could hold fast to 2000 years of orthodoxy (IOW, what 51% of people choose to believe) and either totally disregard or simply tip their theological hats to orthopraxy (IOW, action...doing stuff, making a concrete difference, concretely changing the world.)
I called the church to do the radical thing... you know...do what Jesus is purported to have taught.... to reach out and embrace diversity, to challenge people to welcome those who looked and acted differently, to spend time on the margins of society, to actively and intentionally root out oppression, prejudice, corruption, and the rest. IOW, the church needs to be relevant and walk the talk.
AND another part of my message was also always the same.... when the churchceases to be relevant, the result will be a loss of members, a loss of commitment and a loss of its role in society. It would lead to conflict and discouragement. Folks will walk away. People will be “done” and become “nones.” Not Catholic Nuns, but non-affiliated, non-participators... folks who are disengaged in the religious project and the spiritual life.
And friends, this has played out. Just look at the numbers.... 35% of millennialsare in this category and more and more join the ranks each day. The number of folks in all mainline denominations is falling. The mega-churches are increasing,for certain.... not because of what they do to make this world a better place but because they are entertaining and they spout believing over doing.
When I was in Raytown, MO, the largest Southern Baptist congregation in the State was close by...a huge church... thousands attended each of 5 services each Sunday, and yet not a dime was donated to a local food and clothing pantry. Great entertainment. Crappy social justice ministry.
Let me give you another real-life example. When I was a temporary supply pastor of a small rural PCUSA church in Arkansas, each week I felt well received and had

a lot of positive feedback about my sermons and leadership within the church. I intentionally stayed within Presbyterian orthodoxy, (right theological thinking, preaching and teaching)... not wandering too far afield. By and large, most of the congregants knew that I was fairly progressive, but I didn’t flaunt it. I was a mainstream Presbyterian. I even made it a personal rule to not preach on culturally controversial topics, after all, I reasoned, I was temporary, didn’t live in thecommunity, and was unable to provide pastoral care when I challenged the sensibilities of this fairly conservative congregation... even though this PCUSA church, in general, is the most liberal church in the area.
One Sunday, my message was on the passage where Jesus made the audacious statement that we are to move from our pews to the streets. We are to love our neighbors, even those with whom we disagree or who are our enemies. I offered a list of neighbors and those with whom a person might disagree... but we are to love them regardless. I challenged the congregants to reach out, become intentional and proactive and love those folks who looked, acted and believed differently. My list included, people of color, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, the homeless, poor, the hungry, dispossessed, those in prison, strangers, immigrants, and gays. On the way out of church, I received lots of affirmation.
However, one elderly man hung back. He waited until almost everyone had left. He approached me, wouldn’t shake my hand, and told me that he would not returnto the church until I stopped “preaching the gay agenda.” Frankly, I was shocked. I had not necessarily singled out LGBTQ folk, nor had I spent any significant time in my message focusing on (what he thought was) the “gay agenda,” (which frankly, I am not sure I even know what that is.) But this is what he had heard. And he was clearly upset and I was caught off-guard. He passed me by, even though I asked him to explain. Apparently, he was done, at least until I was gone or changed my “sinful ways.” He apparently saw no connection between what Jesussaid and what Jesus called him to do... connect with his neighbors and yes, evengay folk, respect them, advocate for them...you know... love them in concrete and intentional ways.... Walk the talk... make the world a better place through serviceto those on the margins.
He was done. BUT one thing that he didn’t know and that was, “I was also done.” For me this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I entered the ranks of the“none.” I gave my 2 week notice.

I had preached well over 1500 sermons in my 25 years in active ministry andtaught at least that many classes... nearly ALL of which were on the Gospels, where I emphasized Jesus’ message of love, peace, mercy, kindness, acceptance, tolerance, and justice and his repeated admonition to actually do something to help improve the lives of people. I wondered if these messages had fallen on deaf ears.In each sermon I called people to action... to move from the pews to the street. I called people to make what they believed... tangible, concrete, transformative... ina word, relevant. Needless to say, I was discouraged by my encounter with this elderly fellow and I was also “done.”
<SLIDE ON: Sisyphus>
I felt like Sisyphus, the corrupt king of Corinth, who because of his hubris and arrogance was punished by having to push a bolder to the top of a hill, only to have it roll back to the bottom. This activity was to be repeated, over and over, for eternity. <SLIDE OFF>
So when this elderly gentleman told me that he wasn’t coming back and that myagenda was antithetical to his own, and what he thought the Christian message was all about, I entered the ranks of the “none.” I vowed to never to darken the door of a church again. At least this is what I thought at the time.

<SLIDE ON: Holy Week>

As many of you know, this is the beginning of Holy Week in the Christian church.
<SLIDE OFF>
SLIDE ON:Palm Sunday>

Today is Palm Sunday. Across the globe, today in the Western Christian church,folk are celebrating Jesus’ “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem. Today is the

beginning of the week that starts with excitement and ends with death and despair.
<SLIDE OFF>
<SLIDE ON: Easter Egg>

A new week starts next Sunday with the “Hunt” (this has an interesting history to be preached at some other time) <SLIDE OFF>

<SLIDE ON: Resurrection>

and resurrection of Jesus. <SLIDE OFF>
For most of us, we have waved palm fawns, attended daily prayer vigils, participated in a solemn Seder meal or Tenebrae Service of darkness on Maundy Thursday and/or went to a community a Good Friday service, stripped all the symbols out of the church. Some even prayed their way through Saturday in a cold dark sanctuary.
If the truth be known... if taken seriously, this is a tough week for Christians because they rehearse the tragic story of excitement morphing to despair. It is also tough because this week puts relevance, or the lack of relevance, into the forefront of Christian church-going folk’s minds. IF people are actually paying attention, they must conclude that, although this is an interesting story that we tell in sermons, skits, concerts, music, studies and the like... the energy that is spentduring this Holy Week is probably antithetical to what Jesus would have wanted. For those really paying attention, they are left with the question, “So what?” How did rehearsing this story and navigating the various Holy Week events, make any real difference in the lives of the poor, oppressed, dispossessed, and marginalized. Who was fed, clothed, visited? Who was liberated from oppression or lifted out of destitution? Did life get any better for the bulk of humanity by rehearsing and participating in waving some palm fawns, eating a Jewish meal recalling the flight

from Egypt, participating in a Tenebrae service of darkness or a Good Friday prayer vigil or service reminding us of our overwhelming sinfulness? Was the world made a better place during this week? Was there less corruption in government, churches and businesses? Did peace erupt? Were people’s livesimproved?
Tack onto this downer of a week of irrelevance, (and if you are like me when I was in the mainline church,) I got up early Sunday morning for a sunrise service, sangthe Handel’s Messiah.... beautiful and glorious 18th century music that still gives me goose bumps. AND led three worship services later in the day, went home and collapsed. The alarm went off Monday morning to alert me that I needed to dive back into the cesspool of our culture and society which had not changed one bit because of the things we did in the previous week. People were still hungry, kids were still locked in cages, the wealthy still exacted a pound or more of flesh from workers, women were still terrorized, underpaid and marginalized, gay folk remained in hiding or were still being bullied, people were still murdered by people who sanctified the 2nd amendment to the point of absurdity, wars still raged and innocent folks still died, injustice was still ubiquitous, corruption lit up the front pages of the media, the lying and spinning continued. All of this energy during and around this Holy Week and the Sunday following it... only highlighted the irrelevance of it all. I suppose that you are hearing the Cynical Mark... a Mark who had entered the ranks of the “none and done.”
I think that it is interesting that, and in reflection, Jesus was also “done” and thiswas his week to show that he was moving away from the institutional church. He had preached and taught for 3 years and he possibly felt like Sisyphus who was involved in a futile endeavor.... so he turned over the money changer tables, called the religious leaders hypocrites by calling out the leaders of the church no less than a 1⁄2 dozen times, challenged the religious institutions at least twice. He even cursed a fig tree, symbolic of Judaism in general. He was really an unhappycamper and he was “done” with the institutional church that had lost its way bybecoming irrelevant... a church that was not addressing the needs of real people inreal situations.

<SLIDE ON: Obama>

I sort of have a vision of Jesus doing what President Obama did in his last White House Correspondents' Dinner speech. (Of course, our current POTUS refused to go to this event this week, but that is another story for later. I wish he was done!) When Obama was done, at the end of this speech, he dropped his mic, threw his papers in the air and walked off to uproarious applause. <SLIDE OFF>
Suffice it to say, Jesus was done and Jesus willingly went to his death. The story is always portrayed as Jesus earthly mission was over. Clearly Jesus demonstrated an utter frustration with the religious leaders not translating his words into relevantaction that made a difference in people’s lives.
But notice. Jesus still hangs in there. He does not remain a “none” for very long...depending on what version you read...2 or three days later... the story goes that he is back at it.
Perhaps Jesus wasn’t really done but actually the first REAL Progressive!
In my own journey.... and my guess is that for many of you...., your journey didn’t end when you came to the conclusion that you were “done” with the church and when you entered the ranks of the “none.” Deep down and underneath the hurt, or realization what the institutional church had become for you, you were actually a true Progressive. Yes, I took a break from church and the religious life. Yes, I

vowed to never return to church, especially in a leadership role. I said that I was done with the lack of relevancy and the overt and conscious hypocrisy. I was done with church because it had ceased to be relevant, did not embrace diversity, continued its support of subtle and overt violence against women, minorities, LGBTQ folk, wasn’t active in being a prophetic voice, failed to reach beyond itswalls and into the streets, and didn’t love its neighbors or those who are unique or different.
Some friends invited me to this church and I saw and heard something different than what I had experienced in other mainline churches. I saw behavior that mirrored what was said, I heard messages that were relevant... you know...Progressive. I saw people who are embraced because they are different. They are not shunned or bullied or shamed. I saw people on a journey who were not really“done.” In fact, they were very much engaged, alive, active, and reaching out inrelevancy.... outside the walls, during the week, in public and private ways... that reached into the community and beyond.
Food, shoes, blankets, sundry items for the homeless, protesting at and confronting leaders at their offices, writing letters and making phone calls to local and national officials, taking trips to natural disaster areas and providing on-site hope and comfort at Standing Rock, reaching out to the Internet community with relevant messages, writing books and articles that encouraged action, discussing and staying current on hot-button social and cultural issues.... these are just a few aspects of this vibrant, relevant and Progressive ministry. This is what I preached about for 25 years and found very few groups willing to make this level of investment and commitment towards making this world a better, more lovingplace... which, BTW, I think was Jesus core message.
For me and for many of you, when the Muller report came out, I was REALLY angry and frustrated. I was ashamed to be an American and discouraged that the one institution I felt was above the politics and actually lived by the notion of“justice being blind” had failed us. Trump and his minions had even corrupted thispillar institution of our democracy and way of life. I was “done.” I decided to turnoff the news and close my FaceBook and Twitter accounts. I told myself that I would even stop listening to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC and not vote. I was depressed.

So for a few weeks I sat. I was immobilized. AND if a poll was taken during thosetwo weeks, I would have registered as a “none.” I was “done”... and I wasn’tgoing back.
But the reality was, I really wasn’t “done.” After all, I am a Progressive. I hadn’tdropped out, never to appear again in a voting booth. Just like when I was “done” with the church and all of its dysfunction, and for a while, I was a “none,” I have entered back into the mix this time as a Progressive seeking and hopefully living into a Progressive religious and cultural experience. Just like with my church experience, I have looked at myself in the mirror and concluded that the religious journey is so very important, often very difficult, disappointing, and frustrating. So is the cultural fight in which we are currently engaged. I was reminded of this quote by Jacob Riis:
<SLIDE ON: Riis Quote>

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before. <SLIDE OFF>
The stone we are chipping away at is legislative, executive and judicial...governmental and organizational corruption. It is systemic inequity...economic,racial, gender, sexual orientation, and political inequity. The stone we must work

to break up is a system favoring the rich, racists, wealthy, whites, males, and thepowerful...the upper .05%. The stone we are chipping away at is ignorance and denial of science and scholarship. The stone we are chipping away at is basic care for the poor, immigrants, children, women, the sick and the disabled. The stone we are chipping away at is fake news, alternative truth, and lies. The stone that we must chip away at is isolationism, nationalism, selfishness, greed and exploitation of people and our planet. We MUST stay in the fight. We must NOT become a“none.”
This is also the agenda of the Progressive Church. This is the agenda of people who long for a faith life that is relevant, real, concrete and tangible. It is the life of a person who genuinely cares about this world, freedom, justice, fairness, and equality. This is the agenda of people who are on a journey of faith and relevance. Yes, there are times when we must take a break, get our bearings back, and get recharged. BUT we must NEVER give up. We must keep chipping away.
<SLIDE ON: Coburn Quote>

Bruce Cockburn in 1991 penned a song titled "Lovers in a Dangerous Time"... where it says... “gotta kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight.” This is our theme... the Progressive theme... and what makes this church relevant! It is also what makes our social and political action relevant.

Our job is to make what we say and do, relevant. Our job is to keep chipping away. Our job is to keep kicking at the darkness until it bleeds light. <SLIDE OFF>